


Myka's Christmas Carol

by crazystucki



Category: Carol (2015), Warehouse 13
Genre: 1950s, Alternate Universe - Carol (2015) Fusion, Crossover, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:41:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28361079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazystucki/pseuds/crazystucki
Summary: A Warehouse 13 two shot based off of the movie Carol (2015).Myka Bering meets a woman at the department store and is invited over to help assemble a train set.Helena Wells intended to buy a doll for her daughter and went home with a train set and a beautiful woman.
Relationships: Myka Bering/Helena "H. G." Wells
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Myka's Christmas Carol

**Author's Note:**

> When I watched Carol for the first time I didn't immediately think of Myka and Helena but I have every time I watched the movie since. This is really only a short part of the movie with a lot of alterations. First of all Helena Ex isn't a d*ck and Pete isn't nearly as overbearing as Richard.
> 
> If anyone would like I'm thinking of making this into another story which follows the movies events more thoroughly and to the end. Let me know if that would interest you. 
> 
> Also let if be known that none of the characters belong to me and that this work is un betaed so all and every mistakes are mine.

It was icy cold in the apartment. The building had never quite grasped the ability to hold a stead temperature, no matter what its residents tried. In summer it had the unfortunate practice to grow too hot to be truly comfortable and that even though New York summers were much less heated than other parts of America. In winter, however, it became comparable to what people imagined the North Pole felt like.

This morning in particular was very cold. The air while fresh was brisk and Myka's face felt frozen already as she opened her eyes to the shrill sound of her alarm clock dancing on the nightstand.

Cool light was filtering in through the window, the sky a greyish, winter blue.

Myka had never had much of a problem with mornings but getting up when even your bed covers barely proved sufficient against the cold was a task that she dreaded every time.

Since staying in bed wasn't an option, however, she carefully wrapped her covers around her pyjama clawed self and hurried to the kitchen to light a fire in the stove.

The floor boards creaked softly under her weight, the sound familiar and soothing.  
As soon as the fire was lit she collected what she needed for the source of life, her morning coffee.

Anyone who knew her wouldn't dare approach before she'd had at least one cup.

As the coffee brewed she brushed her teeth over the sink in the kitchen, the freshness of the toothpaste shooing away the taste of sleep from her mouth.

The kettle boiled and myka hurried to prepare the golden brown liquid she craved so.  
She had merely taken a sip when a sound made her lift her gaze from the dark concoction to the window.

A pebble grazed its surface.

The blanket still wrapped tightly around her to ward of the cold, Myka pried the window loose to stretch her head outside.

Down below on the street, leaning against his bycile was Pete Lattimer, looking up at her with the boyish smirk that was so typical for his persona.

"Morning Mykes. Don't you look just peachy!" 

"I like your scribbles", Myka teased, gesturing towards the chalk marks on the pavement below his feet. 

Pete, apparently unaware of the artwork underneath him, cast a curious glance downwards before turning his had back to her to grin. 

"Thanks! I put all my effort into it!" 

"I'll be done in a minute." 

***

The air outside was ever more cold and though she usually disliked hats more than anything because they smothered her curls and made them stand up in an unruly manner, Myka was grateful for the wool barett that graced the top of her head today. 

Pete went at it in a leisurely pace and his bycile carried them along the path through the park steadily.  
The branches of the nearby trees carried their loads of snow like roality a crown. 

"Have you given any more thought to coming to Europe with me?", Pete asked as they came close to a junction where people were taking a stroll. 

Myka took a deep breath and let the air fill her lungs to the brim before she exhaled it slowly. 

She had, in fact. She had given a lot ot thought to it. It wasn't that she didn't want to go to Europe, she really, really, did. It sounded wonderful, adventurous. Neither of which had ever been a word to describe her. But since escaping her fathers grasp and the dreary future of an old bookstore she had found herself wanting...to be, to see. To want in general. 

The issue, however, was the implication a trip to Europe with Pete would have. Myka loved Pete dearly, he was her best friend but the more time they spend the more people's expectations towards them changed from seeing them as two people inclined towards each other in a friendly manner to believing them to be lovers. And that, was a thought Myka couldn't bear to entertain. 

She knew Pete would never push the matter. He had, a while ago, offered to marry her if she wished. He knew how much she longed for a proper family, one whose expectations she didn't continously dissapoint, who liked and enjoyed her company. And she knew that Petes family liked her, he had reassured her several times. It didn't change that she didn't see him in the way that heigjt see her if she allowed him. 

"I think...I think its too cold, I can't think straight", she grumbled and he laughed amusedly and told her they'd better get going and get her to wamrth then. 

The matter was dropped for the moment and Myka could breathe more easily again. 

They entered through the employee entrance of the shop with the big pulg of people who worked at the department-store. 

The guard at in the hall handed them tacky Santa Hats with big white plush balls with the words: "Compliments of the season from the management." 

Pete left her by the elevators to make his way to his own department while Myka entered the tiny cabin that carried her up to where she was required to be that morning.

The Toy department is particularly favoured this time of year and while Myka is happy the business is going well because she is grateful that she has a job that supports her without any means from her parents she could think of things she'd rather occupy her time with than selling dolls to hectic mothers. 

The only piece Myka really likes is the new trainset that had just been delivered a few short days prior. 

She's the first one in the shop and feels privileged to be allowed to set the trains in motion in the display case. She rests her Santa Hat on the counter of her workstation and makes a route through the shop. 

Then she turns to the more tedious of her duties and makes sure that they have displayed all dolls that are available and that her desk is stocked with the wrapped versions of them to give out when bought. She assures herself of a sufficient number of delivery slips and that chance is in the till. 

Before too long the rest of her coworkers come through the doors, exchanging moderately please t greeting and setting up their work stations. 

Its only just eight when the sound system of the department store comes crackling to life to inform the first customers of the day where they might find what and which items are on sale. 

The elevators make noisy arrivals on their floor and Myka braces herself for the first onslaught of frenetic mothers with crying or screaming children. Its still sensory overload when the doors are pushed open roughly. 

Her supervisors gestures angrily in Mykas direction and then points at her own head where the Santa Hat is resting and Myka sighs, resigning herself to her destiny and reluctantly places the festive item upon her head. Her curls stick out in an unruly manner but there is nothing to be done for that now. 

The business was buzzing so shortly before Christmas and Myka was occupied heavily for a while.  
By the time the flow had somewhat calmed Myka had almost forgotten the accessorie grazing the crown of her had. 

She cast a longing gaze at the book she had brought and taken out of her bag to read in hopes of a break. Now it felt like bad luck, taking it out too early. Like tempting fate to forbid her a break to read. 

When she cast her gaze up again it got caught on something else entirely, or rather on someone. 

What it was that had drawn Mykas focus to her she couldn't say, not then and certainly not afterwards.  
But when she glanced up from her book and through the crowd her eyes fixated on the woman with the fur coat and the long flowing hair that looked like a shiny pool of obsidian. 

Before Myka could take her in fully, however, she was momentarily distracted by another woman, much less enticing, and her daughter who were in search of the ladies room.  
Myka directed them dutifully and was thanked but by the time she returned her eyes to the place her focus had been just moments earlier, the woman was gone. 

And though she didn't know why Myka looked around to see if she could catch another glimpse but the woman was gone. 

It was only a while later while Myka was busy restocking her station that she caught sight of her again. 

The sound of leather softly slapping the surface of the glass counter under which she was rummaging made her look up And straight into the attentive eyes of the woman she had seen earlier. 

"I was wondering if you might help me find this doll for my daughter." 

The voice was soft, the accent British and Myka's attention wholefully captured right that second. 

Pale, long finger extended a slip of paper to her and Myka took it to read the elegant scrwal upon it. 

"Bright Betsy", Myka read. "Oh, she cries and wets herself." She cast another glance at the piece of paper, furrowing her brows. "But I'm afraid we're out of stock." 

"Ah, I left it too long."  
She sounded defeated. 

The unhappy pout that slipped onto the other woman's lips was a sight to behold and Myka found herself instantly wishing to fix the issue. 

"But we have many other dolls!", she offered quickly, turning to move between the rows of different dolls. "All kinds actually!" 

She herself had no proper knowledge of dolls but she was sure with how man's different kinds there were it shouldn't be too hard to find another one which would please the woman, and her daughter. 

"Right." The sound of defeat had not yet left her voice.  
"What was your favourite doll when you were four?" 

"Me?" 

Myka's eyes flitted nervously over the counter and over to the display of dolls. 

"Not many to be honest",she admitted, watching as those long fingers clasped a cigarette between them and lead it to those cherry blossom lips. 

The click of the lighter held close to the angular face was what snapped Myka out of her confused trance light state. 

"I'm sorry, you're not allowed to smoke in the sales store." 

The woman sighed and took the cigarette down.  
"I'm sorry, shopping makes me nervous." 

She replaced the circular tube in its proper holder and put it away in her bag. 

"That's okay, working here makes me nervous."  
The admission flew from her lips freely and quite without Myka's permission. 

But hearing the other woman's melodious laugh was worth the slight embarrassment she felt at her statement. 

"You're very kind", the woman in the fur coat offered, taking out a rectangular object from her purse. 

She offered it to Myka who realized two things, one the woman's fingernails were meticulously manicured and painted a lovely, dark shade of red and two, she was offering Myka a picture of her daughter. 

"Here she is", she said and Myka carefully grasped onto the Polaroid. 

"Oh she looks like you, around the eyes", she offered and a smile stretched over the woman's features. 

"You think so? What did you want when you were this age?"  
The woman was leaning on Myka's counter now and for some reason the action put Myka at ease. 

She didn't have to think too long or hard about what she would have wanted.  
It was something she was sure to never have gotten from her parents but never the less. 

"A train set."  
She smiled at the other woman. 

"Really? Do you know much about trains?" 

"I do actually! We just got a new model in, handpainted cars it's a limited edition of 5.000. You might have seen it on the was in." 

She womans glanced back over her shoulder to where she had stood before and then back at Myka. 

"How do you know so much about train sets?", she asked. 

"Oh, I read. Too much probably."

"Thats impossible, my dear."

Then she cast another glance at the train sets. 

"Do you ship?" 

"Oh yeah! Special delivery, you could have it in two or three days!" 

It was only later that Myka spotted the brown leather gloves left on top of the otherwise spotless glass counter. 

She slipped them into her bag with little more consideration and tried not to think of them for the rest of the day. And failed terribly. 

***

After work, the incident with the woman before almost forgotten, Myka accompanied Pete to the cinema. She sat with him and his friends in the back room and observed the movie. The light was gloomy and the air smelled like dust but Myka liked the ambiente. It reminded her of her more pleasant memories of her childhood home. 

"Move over nobody can see the screen!", Joshua called. He was who had let them into the backroom. He was busy making sure the film was running smoothly while his younger sister, Claudia, sat right in front of the projector to spy out through he small window into the movie theater. 

"Nobody else wants to see the movie", Pete quipped and earned a slap on the arm from Myka. 

"I'm watching!" 

The shared some easy laughter. 

"I'm analysing the the correlation of what the characters on screen are supposed to feel and what they really feel!", Claudia defended. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, my kid sister the theater hero!", Joshua called and earned a glare from Claudia before they all resolved into laughter again. 

***

"I'm stirclty a beer kinda gal", Claudia sais when later they were all seated in a bar downtown, their respective beverages resting in front of them. "Everything else makes me wanna puke." 

It was kind of loud in bar but the patrons seemed to be just sober enough to be well behaved and the wooden counter on which Myka was leaning was clean.  
As far has her standards for bars went this one was a decent one.

"Well wine makes me feel naughty but in a good way", she disclosed, taking another sip from the red liquid. 

"I used to drink to forget that I had work in the morning", Pete admitted, eyeing his glass of coke. For Pete to be sitting in a bar was a big accomplishment. Just a year ago none of them would have wanted to tempt him in this way but he had assured them it would be fine. Steve, who was sitting on his right and had decided to stay sober that evening as well, was keeping an eye on him anyway.

"Well you see that's your problem! You really ought to drink because you got a job! Employments a curse!"  
Joshua 

"You've got a job, Josh", Myka reminded him amusedly. 

"You call that a job? I call that an illusion." Jusha took a large swig of his beer. 

"You get paid, don't you? Isn't money an illusion?", Claudia retorted, eyes narrowed. 

"My kid sister, the jerk philosipher", Joshua grumbled. 

"Where do you work?", Myka looked at Claudia expectantly. 

"Didn't you know?", Pete quipped. "Claud works the New York Times!" 

Claudia grinned.  
"It's a job. My boss, Artie, is kind of a drag. Always talks to me about reading weird manuals. What I'd really like is if they'd let me get my hands on the printing press. I could improve it tenfold but Artie says it's running just like it should and I'm not supposed to play with big machinery."

"Ah Myka, before these bickering children make me forgot", Steve reached into the bag he had hangung from the back of of his bar stool and pulled out a camera. 

"You did it? It's fixed?"  
Myka took the outstretched devices from him and began fingerings the settings. 

"Yeah, he said it was a sinch. No sweat."  
Steve grinned at her and Myka smiled brightly back at him. 

"Oh thank you, Steve. I was missing it." 

"You take pictures, Myka?", Claudia asked curiously. 

Myka was about to answer when Petes laughter filled the air around them.  
"She takes pictures alright! She's more excited about that camera than she is about coming to Europe with me!" 

She was glad that Steve and Claudia were there with her when Pete and Joshua went into a discussion of all the great places in Europe to be excited about because the undeniable feeling of dread had settled in her gut again and even though Claudia and Steve could do nothing that would relieve it they still distracted her decently for the rest of the night. 

When they finally left the bar Josh and Pete were stumbling along the street, one from being drunk and the other from being silly. 

"Pete, watch out!", Myka called but it was too late and both men went tumbling down with the bicycles they were trying to unlock. 

"You should come by the Times some time, Mykes", Claudia offered as they watch their respective responsibilities trying to sort themselves out.  
"I could show you around. Maybe you could bring some pictures, my boss might like them." 

Myka smiled softly at the other woman. Claudia was younger than her but not by a lot and the youthful energy that posses her was infectious. 

"That sounds great", she said before she waved and moved over to Pete to push her arm through his to drag him and his vehicle along before he and Claudia's brother got into anymore nonsense. 

It was quite late, house after they got home, when Pete was already asleep in her bed that Myka sat at the kitchen table in her pyjamas and looked down at the receipt that the woman at the store had filled out. Her fingers reached out to trace the soft leather of the gloves the woman had left and Myka had brought home. They looked out of place, almost surreal on her table. Such expensive accessories simply didn't belong on an unfinished wooden table. 

For a moment she felt indecisive, then Myka got up and collected what she needed. Five minutes later she rushed outside to the nearest postbox and dropped something inside before hurrying inside again to slip under the warm blanket that she kept on her living room couch. 

***

"Sixty-four, Sixty-five,...", Christina Wells counted as her mother brushed her hair. 

"Sixty-six, Sixty-seven", her mother counted along as she dragged the soft bristles through her daughters raven hair. 

The little girl, just four years of age, sat on her mother's lap and look at her through the golden mirror in front of them. Christina had always loved her mothers vanity. It was something made for a lady and her mommy was a lady and there was nothing Christina Wells wanted more in the entire world than to be just like her mother. 

They heard noise, clatter and voices, from downstairs. 

"That must be your father, better finish up", her mother said, brushing through the little girls hair with quick precision. 

"Mommy can you come skating too?", Christina asked once her mother placed the brush aside. 

The room smelled of her mother's perfume, a scent Christina always had and always would associate with home. 

"No I don't think so my darling girl." 

"Why not?" Christina pouted. "Pretty please?" 

The T sound was something Christina occasionally struggled with and so the 'pretty' ended up sounding a lot more like 'prewty'. Before her mother could correct her softly, however, a man stepped into the room. 

The smell of expensive perfume from a lush gold bottle was disrupted by the smell of after shave. Another scent that had been Christinas steady companion throughout her childhood and it was only recently that these two scents had become entirely separated and smelled sort of foreign to her nose now. 

"Dadda! ", Christina exclaimed. "I want Momma to come!" 

"You do, do you?", her father asked with a smile that was real for the sake of his daughter and not for his soon to be ex-wife. 

"You're early", Helena Wells remarked as she watched the man she married years ago as her embraced their daughter. 

"Mail came", he said and threw a bundle of letters and a small brown package onto what was formerly their bed. 

They went to the living room for a while. Christina coloring with both her parents while they had what was always referred to as 'adult talk'. 

"Charles asked me recently what we were thinking of doing", her father said. 

"I find it wonderful that my own brother thinks it best to ask you such things, Wolly." 

They shared a smile. 

William Wollcot had been a funny and charming young fellow when Helena had met him. And for a while they had been very happy.  
Their marriage, however, had likely been doomed from the start. It had taken Helena sleeping with her childhood friend for them to find out, though. Initially Wolly had been deeply hurt and there had been an exorbitant amount of yelling. Probably the reason their housekeeper was eyeing them so strangely from the side now. 

Weeks and several yelling matches later William had come knocking on her bedroom door late at night and whispered confessions of a work friend who he had always had an interest in that he never quite allowed himself to admit.  
They had thought long and hard about staying together for the sake of keeping up appearance but in the end decided that it was best to live apart. 

Charles, Helena's older brother, had been less than pleased by any of the events. That, however, had never stopped Helena from doing anything, especially not if she herself thought it was a great idea. 

"I'll have her back to you by noon", Wolly promised. They had agreed that Christina would spend the day before and Christmas Eve with her father and Christmas Morning with her mother. 

They had decided it was best if Christina had quality time with both of them separately for a while because while the decision to go through with the divorce had been a mutual one occasionally hurt feelings tended to make it hard for either of them to spend extented time with one another. An issue that they agreed would take a bit of time but eventually resolve itself. 

Wolly and Christina had barely left the house when Helena felt loneliness settle over the place like dust. Time to open the mail then. 

***

The department store was buzzing again with parents trying to accomplish the last of their Christmas shopping and Myka could almost taste the tension in the air. 

She was just informing a customer of the different eye color options available for a specific doll when her supervisor called her name. 

"Miss Bering!" And then, when Myka didn't react immediately louder. "Miss BERING!" 

She excused herself from the customer and hurried over to where the elderly woman was standing by the phone,holding the receiver out to her as if it was something dirty that had offended her on top of that. 

Myka held the device up to her gingerly and was connected. 

"So it was you", were the first words that she heard from that soft British voice in days and they send a rush through her. 

"Miss Wells", Myka choked.

"Yes quite right. I wanted to thank you for returning my gloves, it was quite darling of you." 

"Oh, it was no trouble at all", Myka assured, her voice more on the squeaky end. 

"Never the less I wanted to thank you. But I must admit I had another agenda when I called this number. The train set arrived." 

"I'm glad to hear that, I made it was delivered right away!" 

She could hear a soft, throaty chuckle from the other end of the line. 

"It was darling of you to do so. There is only one problem. I forgot to order for someone to set it up, or rather I was too arrogant when they offered to accept. You see I like tinkering myself quite a lot and thought it couldn't be too hard. Apparently I was mistaken. I don't know the least thing about train sets."

"Oh...Um I could probably have someone dispatched to you by tomorrow afternoon", Myka offered, trying to figure out if what she had said was closer to a truth or a lie this close to Christmas. 

There was a pregnant pause. 

"I had kind of hoped you might be able to come yourself. I understand if you don't have the time but I thought the girl who knows everything about train models would be the best for the job." 

The bustling from the shop faded away for a moment and Myka wasn't sure what drive her to say her next words but as soon as she opened her mouth a breathless 'Yes' left her lips and suddenly dhe found herself asking for a Pieve of paper and a pen to write down an address that was dicateted to her and promising to be there the next afternoon.


End file.
